Just for the sake of discussion....

How does one keep one's kids from being influenced by the "wrong crowd"?

 One afternoon I was flipping channels on TV and came across good ol' Dr. Phil.  Show was profiling several teen boys with very troubled backgrounds.  Each of these boys had done some pretty self-destructive things including quitting school, heavy drug or alcohol use, involvement in crime, drunk driving, stealing from parents, etc. Each boy had a parent with him who was desperately trying to turn their son around. Really felt for the parents here. They seemed like they were at a complete loss as to what to do.

What I found interesting was the statements made regarding how these boys got involved in such activities.  Each and every parent expressed bewilderment at their child's actions and attributed these actions solely to having fallen in with "the wrong crowd."  No other reason was presented (to my recollection). And, each parent felt powerless at circumventing this influence the "wrong crowd" seemed to have exerted over their child. The boys themselves would state that they'd simply 'fallen in with the wrong crowd' as reason for their misdeeds (**shrug**).  Again, no other explanation offered.

On the one hand, the 'wrong crowd' explanation felt phony- like a convenient catch-all phrase.  No real introspection put forth in such a statement. On the other hand, peer pressure at the teen level can be intense.

So, is "wrong crowd" really a legitimate reason for committing such misdeeds? If so, how does one keep one's kids from being influenced by the "wrong crowd"?

  Again, just for the sake of discussion...

Irene.